NZ stocks: Market flat on light turnover

12.00pm

The New Zealand sharemarket kicked the week off flat today, on typically light Monday turnover.

By mid-morning the NZSE-40 capital index was down 0.29 points, or 0.01 per cent, at 1956.07, while the top-10 index was up 0.02 per cent at 882.27.

Turnover of 5.65 million stocks, valued at $24.77 million, was topped by Telecom's 1.5 million stocks worth $7.2 million.

Ken Allen of Direct Broking said the market was quiet, with the few participants selling rather than buying reflecting the fall in Wall St on Friday.

The key data out this week is Telecom's quarterly result tomorrow.

Telecom scared the horses by announcing last week its after tax profit would probably be between $145 million to $150 million, down on previous market expectations of $165 million.

Today, Telecom was down 1c at 481, after tumbling more than 80c in two days last week.

Elsewhere on the market, Auckland International Airport was up 2c at 508, Fisher & Paykel Healthcare rose 5c to 1080 while F&P Appliances was down 5c also at 1080, Fletcher Building was up 1c at 305, and Tranz Rail gained 5c to 127 after announcing details of its equity issue on Friday

Baycorp Advantage lost 5c to 325, Sky City was down 1c at 762, Sky TV lost 5c to 335, and Restaurant Brands was down 4c at 160.

There were 28 rises and 24 falls on the 96 stocks traded.

New Zealand's weaker market followed falls in the United States on Friday as speculation of a US war with Iraq intensified.

"There's some pretty aggressive talk from (US President) George Bush with Iraq only having a week to comply with the UN demands," Mr Allen said.

"Certainly the market talk is that we're heading towards a war with Iraq of some sort, whether it's a short one or a long one is the question that's bugging people at the moment."

On Wall St on Friday, the Dow Jones industrial average gave up 49.25 points, or 0.57 per cent, to 8536.99; the Nasdaq composite dropped 17.50 points, or 1.27 per cent, to 1359.21; and the broad Standard & Poor's 500 gave up 7.92 points, or 0.88 per cent, to 894.73.

- NZPA